[quote=“tom sawyer”] I hope we see more liter steins brought into use, that is the most fun glass for beer drinking.[/quote]Especially when filled with a DIPA! :cheers:
Just reading that made my liver hurt.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]Just reading that made my liver hurt.[/quote]Livers are like brains - keep pummeling them with alcohol and the weak and slow cells are killed off making both function better with each drink.
I would very much like a good explanation about how one might take a 1.070 IPA and turn it into a 1.040ish IPA.
Also, your recipes should have tasting notes so that when we make the beer we can compare your notes to what we have in front of us.
Isn’t that what bitters is for?
Gerald,
Do you mean ‘sessionizing’ various beers?
[quote=“passlaku”]I would very much like a good explanation about how one might take a 1.070 IPA and turn it into a 1.040ish IPA.
Also, your recipes should have tasting notes so that when we make the beer we can compare your notes to what we have in front of us.[/quote]
There is no such thing as a 1.040 “IPA”.
Great subject! I love session beers and since I love to be able to have a beer in my hand all night and still make it to bed, it’s a priority for my brewing. I think a session beer is probably anything under 1.05 and the lower you can go and still make it flavorful and satisfying, the better. I think that brewing a really satisfying session beer is the mark of a good brewer. In fact, I think that brewing high alcohol beers is almost lazy. Anybody can get great flavor out of a beer with double the ingredients as a session. I think this is where the Brits and Germans shine. No need for high OG for good beer.
Denny,
Come on man! Here are just a few
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010 ... ay_18.html http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2009 ... -weak.html[quote=“mashweasel”]Gerald,
Do you mean ‘sessionizing’ various beers?[/quote]
I was simply thinking that if you wanted hop bitterness and something a bit lighter in ABV bitters seems to fit the bill already. I know it’s not the same, but I don’t think of IPAs when I think session beers. Like Denny said:
[quote]
There is no such thing as a 1.040 “IPA”.[/quote]
Kris, I’ll give you those 2 historical examples. But not only are there no current examples, neither conforms the BJCP examples of an English IPA. Neither one has anything to do with what we currently think of as an IPA. Now, if you want to brew a beer like that, fine…go for it. But language exists for a reason…communication. If we don’t have a common language and definitions, communication is lost.
end of pedantic rant…
Incorrect. IPA started low gravity. There are many many examples of low gravity IPA’s whether they call them that anymore is another story. The IPA that lives know is a myth that has perpetuated. When we talk ‘IPA’ I agree. I order a ham sandwich, I better not get a steak.
The BJCP guidelines talk about a specific beer, now. It doesn’t talk about a historic/traditional IPA. It gives examples for a certain type of ipa. It does the same for the other styles. It doesn’t try to rewrite history.
I guess in my pedantic mind, as long as you refer to a low gravity IPA as a “historical IPA”, I’d have no problem with it. But who cares what I think… 
LOL.
A succession of 8.5% beers is going to make for a significantly shorter (or at least a much foggier) “session”.
Normally I’m not a big fan of the humorously growing list of “styles” that has come into vogue in recent years (since I feel that most of them probably aren’t really technically new “styles” at all).
But people do seem really confused about what the “session” beer is.
I’ve always thought of a “session” beer as one that has a lower ABV (but not necessarily lower flavor).
Of course, physical tolerance with regard to ABV is going to be different for everyone (and an empty stomach can be a factor too), but as far as I’m concerned, once you get higher than 4 or so ABV, you are exiting session-land. That said, I know more than a few beer lovers who still consider a 7.5 ABV IPA as a “session” beer and include it in their own definition.
So, as with “styles” in general (since in the real world any given style is open to wide interpretation with no official entity to govern such things), I suppose its the same with trying to define “session”.
Perhaps in the end, it can be said that one man’s “session” is another man’s emergency room visit.
:shock:
When someone says “I’m drinking a session”. All I can think of is session by full sail. A low-ish alcohol lager, one is black, one red, and one yellow. So that kinda defined the style for me.
The more I drink beer the more I appreciate low alcohol beers. For me a session means low abv. Something very easy to drink. I’ll keep my eyes open for your book. Sounds like something to add to my brew library
Good luck :cheers:
I think that the context in which “session” beers is, or was, consumed is perhaps as important as ABV, flavors, styles, etc. There seem to be a number of beers that evolved in a culture of social consumption- bitter, Scottish Heavy, English Brown ales, Irish Stout, Helles, American Lager- whether it be chatting about local politics, watching sports, playing darts, etc., in a pub, beerhall, or sports bar. To some extent these beers have passed through a “filter” of consumers who have chosen them out of what is available for social (mass) consumption.
Is there something that these particular styles of beer have in common?
Good, timely, topic for book and discussion given the recent upswing in the use of the term.
Not to belabor this too much, but there are English breweries putting out low gravity beers and calling them IPAs. Of course the two examples I remember from my last trip are both Scottish, Stewart Pentland IPA (3.9%) and Caledonian Deuchars IPA (3.8%). Maybe there needs to be another BJCP category :mrgreen:
At any rate, I’m looking forward to the book.
I typically build recipes off of percentages but I can’t say I have ever taken a 1.075 og beer and scaled it to a 1.038 og and done a side by side. I would be curious of mouthfeel and flavor differences. If the smaller beer is lacking flavor, how do I account for that. Maybe it’s something I should just try anyway.
[quote=“S.Scoggin”]When someone says “I’m drinking a session”. All I can think of is session by full sail. A low-ish alcohol lager, one is black, one red, and one yellow. So that kinda defined the style for me.
The more I drink beer the more I appreciate low alcohol beers. For me a session means low abv. Something very easy to drink. I’ll keep my eyes open for your book. Sounds like something to add to my brew library
Good luck :cheers: [/quote]
S.Scoggin, you crystalized my thoughts.
absolutely one of the very best beers in the world under 4%. It’s a fabulous beer regardless of gravity also.
